Rumors about the next-generation Xbox have been circulating for years. The next-generation Xbox, or Xbox 720 as some call it, is expected to launch later this year. There are some indications that Microsoft might unveil the next-generation Xbox ahead of E3 2013. Other rumors have put the price of the next-generation Xbox at around $400.

While most details of the next-generation console remain to be seen, leaked specs have surfaced this week that give some hardware specifications for the processor that will be the brains of the next-generation Xbox. The processor has x64 architecture and eight cores running at 1.6 GHz. Each of those CPU threads has its own 32 kB L1 instruction cache and 32 kB L1 data cache. Each module of the four CPU cores has its own 2 MB L2 cache giving the processor a total of 4 MB of L2 cache.

VGLeaks reports that each core has one fully independent hardware thread and doesn't share execution resources. Each hardware thread is also reportedly able to issue two instructions per clock cycle. The next-generation Xbox GPU is reportedly a custom D3D 11.1 class unit running at 800 MHz with 12 shader cores and 768 total threads.

Each of those threads is reportedly able to perform one scaler multiplication and additional operation per clock. A natural user interface sensor is also always present. That processor is reportedly paired with 8 GB of DDR3 RAM and 32 MB of fast embedded SRAM.

The machine is also paired with a 6x Blu-ray drive, gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct, and various hardware accelerators for image, video, and audio codecs. The machine is also tipped include a Kinect multichannel echo cancellation hardware chip and cryptography engines for encrypting and decrypting content.

Consoles and customer stupidity are the sole reason PC games are dying, not piracy.

It's well known consoles drag down quality of PC games. I for one are excited at the slight emergence of good PC games recently after current gen consoles show their age.

People don't realize, while consoles have cheap upfront cost, PC games are nearly half the price of console counterparts and they will save more money in the long run getting a capable PC or laptop, and even use them for other things.

You need a Steam account, PC games aren't dying, there is a vibrant community online and plenty of great new games, although not all of them come from established publishers. Steam is a great way to get great games cheap and easily.

They arent dying, but defintely not mainstrream anymore. It used to be a top tier game would be developed for PC. Later, top games were developed primarily for PC and consoles as a secondary. Now consoles are where its at as far as top tier game development with PC being the afterthought. A few do favor PC, but for the most part, its all about consoles.

This is certainly true, but a part of it is due to console makers funding exclusives.

The problem with AAA game development putting a ceiling on how it will look on a PC is true, but another problem is the sheer cost of making a game. AAA titles are unbelievable risks these days and the majority of them fail. This is one reason why you're seeing such a move to "smaller" titles on PC and mobile.

Established console franchises like CoD, Halo, Gears, Assassin's Creed, and God Of War, are only a few of the that can get away with megabudgets, and half of those are published (and partly funded) by the console manufacturer that they are exclusive to.

As for the PC being a niche platform, I wouldn't call almost 60 million Steam accounts compared to about 40 million XBox Live accounts a niche, nor would I call League Of Legends being played more than even Call Of Duty or Halo a niche. There are just lots of choices that go beyond AAA games that are mostly on-rails experiences anyway.

Anyway, most "smaller" games are better these days. I hate the trend towards on-rails gameplay, super boring. One of the best games from last year was FTL, an indie made by two guys, and I've put an absolutely unreasonable amount of time put into DOTA 2 over the last year. :)